Coca-Cola Seen Mustering $100M For Coke, Sprite Summer Promos

Brandweek, Feb 15, 1999 by Theresa Howard

Coca-Cola is backing its core brand and fast-growing Sprite with nearly $100 million in promotional spending for the crucial summer consumption season, even as it rolls out citrus-flavored Citra, introduces Dasani bottled water and restages Surge.

With an estimated $75 million behind the pseudo-covert Coke Card, for which teasers break next month, another $10 million to back 'Red Hot Days of Summer" and about $8 million behind an instant-win cash game tentatively dubbed "In Sprite We Trust," Coke is clearly committed to helping drive sales with heavy marketing spending. The plans would seem to rebut the few who have suggested Coke might uncharacteristically decide to dial back spending in order to boost profitability, which plunged 27% in the fourth quarter on a 3% increase in sales.

Coke Card is entering its sophomore year with opportunities to leverage Coke's recently signed marketing pact with entertainment giant Universal Studios, likely via national sponsorship or tie-ins with such summer tours as 'N Sync and REM. The Card's second run will incorporate an 800 national voicemail network with help from Sprint that will enable consumers to access the network via secret passcodes contained under the cap, as per the tag, "If you don't know, you don't go" (Brandweek, Oct. 12). The company is also continuing negotiations with MasterCard for the credit card issuer's role in the promo. Last year the Purchase, N.Y.-based company featured on-pack ATM cards, with winning cards good for automatic $20 cash withdrawals.

Coke Classic will also be promoted to so-called "home category managers"-elsewhere known as moms-through a "100 days of summer" match-and-win program in supermarkets, backed by $10 million in national media. POP will feature a three-month calendar themed to beach, barbecue, entertainment and travel, with lists of prizes that correspond to a particular date under the cap, sources said. Prizes will include a Ford Explorer, 25 Sea Doo jet skis and other high-end gear, as well as Coke drinks and food products from cross-promotional partners Planters and Nabisco. Of the 100 days, 94 will be pegged to national winnings, while six days will remain open for localized prizes such as tickets to baseball games.

Meanwhile, Sprite's giveaway, which runs May 3 to Sept. 30, will be supported by two 30-second TV spots plus radio ads with a "straightforward, no-hype message" that uses "irreverent humor," per the brand positioning, sources said. The instant-win game will issue up to I million $10 cash prizes to consumers who twist off caps bearing a winning message, with prizes redeemed through a mail-in program that gets the prize money to winners within five days. Multipacks are expected to carry game cards in-pack.

The name, though, is likely to change after some bottlers complained that it could be construed as sacrilegious. The likeliest replacement, sources said, is simply the tagline of the ongoing ad campaign via Lowe & Partners, N.Y.: "Obey your thirst."

The hive of promotional activity is occurring as Coke grapples with a full slate of new and expanding brands to deal with: a restaging Surge, with a new ad campaign and look that hit last week; a citrus Citra brand that is rolling out; and a long-awaited bottled water, Dasani. In addition, Coke has invited in new agencies to pitch its core brand and is planning the launch of a lifestyle clothing line called "Coca-Cola Wear."

The Surge campaign, via Leo Burnett, Chicago, tones down "Feed the Rush" in favor of "Life's a Scream" and likely dials up the media budget by 10%, to $40 million. Simultaneously, the company is completing the rollout of Citra, which launched in 1997 but has only been available in half the country so far. Full distribution is expected by late spring. Sources said the brand will build on Coke's strong ties to college campuses and generate trial through extensive sampling programs.

Also by May, Coke's Dasani water will hit its initial markets, including Charlotte, N.C. Although the company had targeted April to begin the phased rollout, revisions to the label have shifted the date. Coke will target supermarkets for the product, which will launch in 20-oz. bottles shaped similarly to the Coke contour bottle but tinted in a transparent blue shade. The mid-priced product is expected to compete directly against Perrier's Poland Spring and Danone's Dannon waters.